Justice News

Cell phone store robbers sentenced in federal court

Robbery team terrorized stores around the Midwest.

PRESS RELEASE

New Albany – United States Attorney Josh J. Minkler announced today the sentencing of two men convicted of robbing cell phone stores in the Midwest. Jeffrey A. Kemp, 41, Dolton, Illinois, was sentenced to 384 months (32 years) and Lawrence D. Adkinson, 28, Hazel Crest, Illinois, was sentenced to 346 months (over 28 years) before U. S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt. The defendants were found guilty at a jury trial in August 2017, of conspiracy to commit robbery, conspiracy to brandish a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, robbery, and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

“This group used violence to terrorize retail store employees around the Midwest,” said Minkler. “Putting the safety of shoppers, employees and law enforcement in jeopardy will never be tolerated. They will many years in the Bureau of Prisons to contemplate their actions.”

The investigation began when a T-Mobile store in Clarksville, Indiana, and a Verizon store in Lexington, Kentucky, were robbed at gun point on successive days in July 2015. The investigation led by the FBI and a coalition of state and local law enforcement agencies and offices determined that Kemp and Adkinson led a group of ten men who committed armed robberies of cell phone retailers in various cities and towns in Illinois, including Orland Park, Joliet, Bloomington, Batavia, and DeKalb, and in St. Louis, Missouri, and Waterloo, Iowa, in addition to those in Clarksville, Indiana, and Lexington, Kentucky. The defendants were ultimately arrested in Iowa, while still in possession of phones stolen from many of the other locations.

The robberies were violent in nature. The robbers often held firearms to the faces of the victims before ultimately restraining them in the back rooms of the retail stores. Kemp and Adkinson, as the leaders of the group, provided all the vehicles, guns, and other instrumentalities of the robberies, selected all of the stores to be robbed, and decided who would rob each store. The other eight defendants have all pled guilty for their roles in the offenses.

"This sentencing is a testament to the dedication of our agents and our partners whose hard work on this investigation ensured this group is no longer a threat to the community," said W. Jay Abbott, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Indianapolis Division

According to Assistant United States Attorneys Bradley Shepard and Pamela Domash who prosecuted this case for the government, both defendants face 3 years of supervised release after serving their sentences.